Maybe it's just us, but the image pictured above sure looks a helluva lot sexier than the blurry depiction we saw of Samsung's G810 just last week. Along with just about everyone else in the mobile world, Samsung is making its striking do-it-all slider official at Mobile World Congress, and it's packin' quite the specs list. We're talking HSDPA, a 5-megapixel camera with face detection, Wide Dynamic Range (WDR) and image stabilization, a 2.6-inch QVGA display, built-in GPS / WiFi, a 3.5-millimeter headphone jack and a 12.9-millimeter-thick frame. All that's for sure is a March 2008 release for those in Europe, but word on the street pegs it right around €580 ($840).

A heck of a lot of phones pass through our grubby hands in the course of an average week, so it usually takes something of a minor miracle to get a rise out of us with a new handset. Well, Samsung, ya did it -- your crazy U100 is positively the most ridiculous feat of phone manufacturing we've seen to date. It's hard to accurately express with words or even pictures just how thin this thing feels in the hand. Whether that's a good thing, well... we reckon that's a matter of personal taste, but needless to say, we don't think this one would survive even a single smashing or bending unscathed (as one observer astutely noted, "this is a purse phone, not a pocket phone"). Despite its minimal girth, the Ultra Edition 5.9 sacrifices virtually nothing, offering A2DP, 80MB of onboard storage (no expansion slot, sadly), a 3.2 megapixel cam, and even TV out. The tri-band radio is a bit of a bummer, but we still found ourselves rocking out with four or five bars of signal strength virtually everywhere we went. Color us impressed!

A special thanks goes out to Wireless Imports for the hookup on this one!

It's just a formality in light of the recent announcement, but we thought we'd send out a friendly reminder to everyone that the lovely A717 from Samsung is now available for purchase directly from AT&T. The $150 on-contract price buys you a flip weighing in at just 12.9mm thick with a 2 megapixel cam, stereo Bluetooth, microSD expansion, and HSDPA data (Video Share support is apparently "coming soon"). Needless to say, we've pushed the SYNC out of our minds completely.

[Thanks, anonymous tipster]

Having recently toyed around with a SGH-U600 Ultra II, we can say with confidence that Samsung's gorgeous, high-style, high-function slider is a fabulous reason for the world's CDMA faithful to shed a tear -- or it was a fabulous reason, anyway, for the short time that it was a GSM exclusive. Enter the SCH-C220, SPH-C2200, and SPH-C2250, models for three of Korea's carriers that gladly trade in the U600's radio for CDMA with EV-DO. The cam gets busted down to 2 megapixels from 3.2, but in exchange, you get integrated GPS (a fair trade, we reckon). Other features include 96MB of internal storage, the requisite microSD expansion, and a QVGA display, all packed into a 10.9mm shell decidedly reminiscent of its GSM forebear. If you happen to be in Korea, pick this one up soon for around 500,000 won (about $540).

In multimedia terms, what in tarnation is the F500 Ultra Video lacking? Ooh, that's right: live television. Enter the SCH-B640 "Ultra Mobile TV," a device that shares most of the F500's physical attributes but adds in a little S-DMB action for pulling down the satellite feeds South Koreans so enviably receive. Like the F500, the B640 gets a 2 megapixel cam, a self-supporting swivel stand, and the nifty dual-personality concept with a dedicated phone on one side and multimedia features on the other. Though S-DMB wouldn't work in these parts, the B640 is a CDMA device -- any chance Verizon wants to pick up a MediaFLO version of this to rock the UpStage's world?

Samsung's Ultra Edition II lineup is about to receive a Yahoo-approved makeover, as the firm has reportedly decided to install Yahoo! Ready on the 10.9 (SGH-U600) slider to begin with, with the Ultra Edition 9.6 and Ultra Edition 5.9 to get internally branded soon after. Essentially, users can expect "enhanced web-searching along with quick access to Yahoo Mail, Messenger, Address Book and Calendar services while on the go." Of course, this isn't the first time we've seen Yahoo widgets on a cellphone, and it seems like Samsung's lagging a bit behind Motorola's decision to pull this same stunt months ago, but if you just can't wait to get your hands on a Yahoo-stamped handset, the 10.9 should hit France before too long, while the 9.6 and 5.9 will launch in May. [Warning: Read link requires subscription]

Yes, we just recently brought you a bunch of live shots of the F700 from the CeBIT show floor, but when it comes to a device of this caliber, let's be honest: one good gallery deserves another. These ones come from CTIA; after being given a few brief moments to play with it, we really can't emphasize enough just how flippin' small it is. When we initially saw Samsung's press shots of the device, we got the impression that its dimensions were generous enough to put it head to head with a Hermes or equivalent -- and to be fair, with HSUPA, 7.2Mbps HSDPA, slide-out QWERTY and a 5 megapixel sensor, that's a reasonable impression to have -- but in reality, the F700 is seriously no bigger than a large candybar dumbphone. We don't want to rag on it too much since we haven't played with a functional device yet, but one potential downside is the keyboard -- the small space bar lies squarely in the middle of the bottom row of letter keys and has its top row placed a little too close to the bottom edge of the device's top half. Unfortunately, the unit we spent time with had no operating system loaded, but the hardware was so gorgeous that we almost -- almost -- didn't care.

We think we've got a pretty good -- nay, perfect -- idea of what this is, but Sprint's doing its darndest to keep us all guessing about its upcoming handset that's "redefining flip." We can't really say we blame them; Samsung's curiuous two-sided musicphone is pretty innovative even on a bad day, and it's likely in Sprint's best interest to ride the hype for everything it's worth here. Anyway, the latest marketing antic has us looking at an official countdown to the Samsung "Flipper" m620's reveal at CTIA (at least, that's our best guess as to what's going on here) toward the end of this month -- a phone Sprint promises will offer "a perfect trifecta of voice, music, and unique, stylish form-factor." Their words, not ours, but if the buzz the m620's GSM cousin has been generating translates well to the CDMA version, they may not be too far off the mark.

[Thanks, tuolumne]

Eek! Must restore... cardiac function... ahh, there we go. Samsung's Ultra Editions seem to get classier, glossier, and more far-fetched with every subsequent iteration -- and if they haven't already jumped the shark, they have now with the rather breathtaking Ultra Smart F700. The candybar with a slide-out QWERTY 'board makes do with 7.2Mbps (yes, we said "seven point two") HSDPA plus EDGE for those occasions when 3G towers are out of reach, a 2.78 inch touchscreen sporting no fewer than 440 x 240 pixels, microSD expansion, full HTML browsing, Bluetooth, and a whopping 5 megapixels of snapping power on the backside. Per protocol, America is left squarely out of the equation with GSM 850 and WCDMA 850 / 1900 all coming up missing, but at least folks in the greater Barcelona area should get a shot at it next week when it bows all official-like at 3GSM.

Contrary to previous beliefs, it looks like neither Orange nor HTC will have a part in producing the first "Googlephone," and instead it seems that Samsung is slipping in the back door to steal the limelight. When the Ultra Edition 13.8 (formerly known as the Z720) got official a few days back, we noticed the relatively unexpected suite of Google apps swarming the mobile's innards, and aside from the handset not exactly abiding by the Opera agreement that is supposedly falling into place, it seems a good fit for the first Google-infused mobile. Of course, the programs that come loaded are all available as free downloads on supported handsets, but it seems the European-bound 13.8 will be numero uno in what's likely to be quite a lengthy list of Googled mobiles.

Although Samsung's been busying itself lately with newfangled RAM releases, it has apparently taken the time to confirm what we already suspected. The Z720 has been officially released as part of the Ultra Edition lineup, and per usual, the 13.8 is tagging itself with a "world's slimmest" label, this time for thinnest HSDPA-equipped slider. This sexy handset weighs in at just 80-grams, and features a 3-megapixel AF camera, 2.1-inch QVGA display, WAP 2.0 / HTML browsing capabilities, an additional camera for "video telephony," document viewer, PIM, Bluetooth, USB, and even a microSD slot. Aside from the UMTS / EDGE / HSDPA / GSM / GPRS connectivity options, you'll also find Samsung's uGo system built-in, not to mention the uTrack feature that sends an SMS to a predetermined number if the SIM card is tampered with. Notably, the 13.8 is the first mobile from Samsung with Google Mobile Search and Gmail pre-installed, which certainly contradicts with the recent Samsung / Opera lovefest we've been hearing about. Nevertheless, the Z720 should start finding its way into bustling European countries soon for a yet-to-be-disclosed price, with smaller locales getting access thereafter.

[Via Akihabara News]

Samsung -- the company for which no phone is too thin or too small -- used ITU Telecom World 2006 in Hong Kong as an opportunity to announce (among other things) a couple new multimedia powerhouses that are both thin and small. The F300 (alias "Flipper," perhaps) is a music-oriented handset that looks like an ordinary MP3 player on one side and a diminutive phone on the other, rocking 100MB of internal storage with microSD expansion up to 2GB, a 220 x 176 display, 2 megapixel cam, FM radio, Bluetooth with A2DP, and a triband GSM radio with EDGE all crammed into a 9.4 millimeter shell. The F500 is more sufficiently equipped for the heavy lifting that comes with video duty, directly supporting DivX on its 2.4-inch QVGA display. Like its F300 little sibling, it features dual faces -- one for phone, one for fun -- but packs a more aggressive 400MB of memory (in addition to whatever you manage to add via microSD). It also adds UMTS and a nifty swivel that allows the phone to be placed upright on a surface for video use, though all the added goodies add a full 1.3 millimeters over the F300's thickness. It's not clear when either device will hit store shelves, but in light of Samsung's little "oopsie" with their CES press release, we're hoping to hear more in the next month or so.

[Thanks, Jason K.]

Read - F300 Ultra Music
Read - F500 Ultra Video